DESCRIPTION: (Applicant's Description) The long-term goal of this research program is to develop efficient, reliable and practical catalytic asymmetric reactions, which will provide synthetic chemists in both academia and industry with the necessary tools to design efficient, practical and environmentally friendly routes for the synthesis of pharmaceuticals and other biologically active compounds. We strive to achieve this goal through the discovery and development of readily accessible chiral catalysts and a broad exploration of their ability to promote catalytic asymmetric reactions. Specifically we will focus on the development of readily available chiral Lewis base catalysts for a wide range of asymmetric nucleophile-electrophile reactions via an approach that combines extensive reaction screening, intensive development and optimization of reaction conditions, and thoughtful mechanistic and structural studies. To illustratethe potential usefulness of these asymmetric reactions in biomedical research, we outline synthetic routes which utilize these asymmetric reactions to transform readily available prochiral precursors into various optically active chiral building blocks for asymmetric synthesis of biologically interesting compounds.